Avoid expensive imitations

I saw 3:10 to Yuma (2007) in a theater and found it rather average. It was too long and deviated pretty far from the original short story by one Elmore Leonard which I had read before I knew it was a movie too, let alone two movies. My estimation of its quality has only fallen since.

Recently I watched the 1957 original, and man, it was something else. Better written, better acted, better photographed... an actual classic. The remake is a prime example of adding needless backstory and silly action scenes where they are not needed.